1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a machine system, a machine control computer, a base software application, a computer-readable recording medium, and a machine control method for establishing intercommunication with a plurality of machines.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, production planning systems make production plans about products to be produced, the number of the products, delivery dates, machines to be used, production processes, etc. Based on the production plans made by the production planning systems, operators operate machine tools, industrial robots, etc., in production sites. The operators of the production sites transmit machine operation information, actual production data, etc., to the production planning systems to perform quality control, process control, etc.
For example, there is a method in which process information is made from a product item object and an operation object, and assignment information is made from the process information and a resource object (for example, refer to WO/2007/105298).
Also, there is a method in which device information on a machine tool or a measurement instrument is periodically collected at established intervals. The collected device information is stored in a database in association with collection times, and sent to an external device (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2004-62276).
In recent years, the diversification of market needs, short product life cycles, and intensified competition in a global market cause an increase in the variety of products and an increase in sales fluctuations. Accordingly, it is required to produce a wide variety and various numbers of products, in order to produce the products dynamically in tandem with the market needs.
Thus, cellular manufacturing in which a plurality of machines are integrated into one production cell, and production is performed on a process-by-process basis in units of the production cells is proposed. According to the cellular manufacturing, the single production cell can produce a plurality of types of products. The number of the production cells can be increased or decreased in accordance with product quantity. The layout of the production cell can be changed depending on a change of the types of products to be produced.
Furthermore, cell control systems each of which controls a plurality of machines installed in a production site through an intranet, while receiving a production plan command from the production planning system over the Internet, are developed. The cell control systems are expected to operate the machines by the command from the production planning system situated in a place away from the production site and to automatically collect and collectively manage various types of information from each machine in real time.
In the above cell control systems, a specific operation software application is installed into the cell control system to establish intercommunication between each machine and the cell control system and to perform the operation of each machine. In this case, information is required to be transmitted and received among a base software application of the cell control system, the operation software application, and each machine. At this time, it is also required to manage the operation software application installed in the cell control system.